Anime /
Pokémon: Genesect and the Legend Awakened

Edit Locked

Advertisement:

Genesect and the Legend Awakened (known in Japan as ExtremeSpeed Genesect: Mewtwo Awakens) is the sixteenth movie entry in the Pokémon movie franchise, and the final entry for the Black & White saga of the anime.

It marks the anime debut of the legendary Pokémon Genesect as well as one of Mewtwo's Mega Evolutions introduced in Pokémon X and Y. The movie follows Ash, Iris, Cilan, and their Pokémon as they arrive in New Talk City, which is being attacked by the Genesect Army, a group of five Genesect led by a Shiny one known as the Red Genesect. The only one who can stop them is Mewtwo, who notes that the Genesect are made by humans, just like it was. Of note, this is a new, separate Mewtwo rather than a return of the Mewtwo from the first movieand its sequel.

The film was released in Japan on July 13th, 2013 and debuted on Cartoon Network in the United States on October 19th, 2013. It was released on DVD in the United States on December 3rd, 2013.

The Red Genesect uses a basic Drive, and its Techno Blast fires a purple laser. While the Techno Blast without a Drive in the games is depicted as a green laser (white in the Gen V games), the laser here would suggest it were a Dark or Ghost-type variant (which doesn't exist in the games).

Mega Mewtwo Y is capable of moving much faster than normal Mewtwo, though its offensive prowess isn't affected majorly. Compare this to the games, in which Mewtwo's Speed barely increases, while its offensive stats (particularly Special Attack) skyrocket.

While this movie's Mewtwo is by no means weak, it's far less powerful in comparison to the original one. Mega Mewtwo Y is also afflicted, as the monstrous Special Attack boost it gets in the games is absent, with a greater focus put on an increase in Speed (which is miniscule in the games).

The Douse Drive Gensesect is an almost total wuss, being far more timid than the other four, only ever talking about going home, having the voice of a young child, and the majority of its fight scenes are when it's under the control of the Red Genesect. Not exactly a portrayal befitting a feared prehistoric top hunter turned super-cyborg by the local Animal Wrongs Group. That it's the Douse Drive Genesect that undergoes this is even something of a meta example, as the Douse Drive is often considered the only Drive worth using in the games as it's Genesect's only access to a Water-type move.

Adaptation Distillation: Whereas in the movie Mewtwo is capable of Mega Evolving from the very start, in the manga adaptation it doesn't transform until halfway through (where it is treated with more gravitas and less apathy as in the original). This means scenes where Mega Mewtwo Y appeared before then are redrawn to have regular Mewtwo instead.

Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: The manga adaptation has a several panels depicting older characters like Brock, Misty, Keldeo et cetera during Mewtwo and Genesect's scene in space when the former tells the latter that "everyone is their friend". However, this makes no sense considering neither one of them should know about any of those characters.* The fact that Brock and Misty are present here also doesn't help things if you're unaware that this Mewtwo is different from the original one (a fact not clear thanks to the obvious lack of a female voice).

In the games, an ex-Team Plasma scientist named Dudley completed Genesect after N ordered Team Plasma to cancel the project. No such character appears in the movie or series, as the Pokémon's origin has been changed so that five Genesect are created and completed solely by several Team Plasma members working for Colress.

The manga adaptation does this, too; rather than having Team Plasma grunts at the Genesect Army's creation, a group of generic scientists are used instead (and in fact, the manga makes no effort to imply they're even a creation of Team Plasma at all).

Advertised Extra: A Sableye was advertised on the movie's website next to some prominent characters. Said Sableye does nothing of note in the film proper and disappears after the first ten minutes or so. It gets one more appearance about half an hour in to inform Ash and friends of the Genesect attack.

Badass Bystander: One of the Pokémon the Genesect disturb in the nature preserve is a Feraligatr, who proceeds to spend the entire rest of the movie trying to fight them off. It fights more than the main cast, who hardly did anything but spectate everything.

Bad Boss: The Red Genesect isn't a very kind leader, often mind-controlling its subordinates and attacking them if they disobey its orders.

Big Apple Sauce: New Talk City is very clearly designed like Castelia City, which itself is New York City. A different reading of the city's name, "New Tork City", makes it even clearer. See No Communities Were Harmed.

Big Bad: The Genesect Army, but particularly the Red Genesect, its leader.

Big Good: Mewtwo, compared to the first Mewtwo, and despite the painful past it's been through.

Brainwashed and Crazy: The Red Genesect can bend the other Genesect to his will and force them to do his bidding. This becomes a recurring plot point with the Douse Drive Genesect, who forms a friendship with Ash and friends.

Broad Strokes: Mewtwo's backstory amounts to a basic retelling of the original Mewtwo's history (up to and including a compressed version of Mewtwo Returns), minus Team Rocket (though its creators are almost exactly the same as them anyway).

Bullet Time: Mewtwo is capable of creating this effect in its Mega Evolution "Y" form.

Canon Foreigner: Arguably the second Mewtwo and the Genesect Army, since the backstory given for both Pokémon in the games all but states that only one of each was made, and that circumstances ensured no more could (or would) be made.

Cheerful Child: The Douse Drive Genesect is this... which can come off as kind of odd since it's a scary-looking cyborg bug with a Backpack Cannon.

Chekhov's Gun: Albeit not a very effective one. James drops a bazooka into the Genesect nest upon being Signal Beam'd by Red Genesect. Relatively soon after, it drops towards the Douse Drive Genesect before being knocked aside.

Clueless Aesop: At the end, Mewtwo and the Red Genesect learn that "on this planet, we are all friends", seemingly forgetting about their creators (the former's electrocuted it for no clear reason, and the latter's was Team Plasma), both of whom were most certainly not anyone's friends, least of all their creations'. And that's ignoring the personality differences among both humans and Pokémon that ensure not all of them are friends to each other...

Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All the Genesect use differently-colored Drives. Red Genesect also shows itself as the leader with its different color scheme.

Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Because the mechanic of Mega Evolution hadn't yet been revealed while the movie was released, Mega Mewtwo Y is referred to as Mewtwo's "Awakened Forme" in promotional material... but in the actual film, it goes unnamed.

When Ash and friends first meet Mewtwo, Ash says "Wait a minute! You're-", in reference to the old Mewtwonote While his memories of Mewtwo were wiped at the end of Pokémon: The First Movie, he remembers Mewtwo from Mewtwo Returns. Some early trailers also depicted an alternate scene where Ash says Mewtwo's name when it first appears, prompting Cilan to turn as if to say "You KNOW this guy?!".

When Mewtwo and Red Genesect fly through Not-Times Square, some video screens show Pokémon Baccer.

Contrived Coincidence: Mewtwo's existence arguably hinges on one - nowhere is it so much as hinted that its creators knew about the original Mewtwo or its creation, so that means they just happened to find Mew DNAnote which was established in Mewtwo Strikes Back as far from being common as dirt, decided to make a super-clone of Mew for seemingly no reason, and knew just the right amount of DNA modification in the cloning process to make their Mewtwo look physically identical to the original... all seemingly without any data or knowledge of the original Mewtwo to work with.

Could Have Been Messy: A group of Genesect looking for a home, led by a mind control-equipped leader who is quick to label everyone else as the enemy and fire their arm cannons directly at them with intent to destroy. And yet, between several Big Damn Heroes moments and a Taking the BulletDisney Death, not a single casualty. Except a few lotuses.

Covers Always Lie: Played with for the international release of the movie. While depicting standard Mewtwo on the cover and/or including Mewtwo's name in the title would be true to the movie, the international title leaves out Mewtwo (aside from the "Legend Awakened" subtitle) and always depicts Mega Mewtwo Y on promotional material rather than standard Mewtwo, probably to avoid confusing the audience due to their familiarity with the original member of the species.

Easily Forgiven: Everyone forgives the Red Genesect (as well as the other Genesect) after the climax. Never mind the fact that they forcibly evicted all Pokémon out of Pokémon Hills against their will (injuring quite a few in the process), endangered all life in the city with their nest and that the Red Genesect was a general arsehole to everyone around him. Apparently saying "Everyone is my friend" is enough for New Talk City to wholeheartedly forgive you, no matter what horrible things you did. And you thought Vegeta got off easily.

Flat Character: The Chill, Shock and Burn Drive Genesect have no established personality and mostly exist to shoot things and get shot back at in return.

Generic Doomsday Villain: While it's rather ambiguous as to whether Mewtwo's creators are "evil" or not, from what we see of Mewtwo's past they seemingly made an all-powerful Pokémon for no real reason other than to shoot lightning at it and get bitten back.

"Get out of Jail Free" Card: The fact that the Genesect Army's motivation was building a new home seems to be the sole reason why they receive little to no punishment for attacking a protected reserve, forcing all the Pokémon in there out, injuring more than a few of them in the process, and threatening the city with outright destruction as a result of building their nest in the city's power supply. This goes double for the Red Genesect, who not only mind-controlled them against their will numerous times, but also doesn't hesitate to attack its fellow Genesect for not following said destructive orders. Nor does it hesitate to open fire on Ash numerous times.

Greater-Scope Villain: Though not present in the movie itself, Team Plasma (and by proxy Ghetsis and Colress) are the creators of the Genesect, and thus the conflict.

HeelFace Turn: During the climax, the Burn, Shock and Chill Drive Genesect undergo one after being saved from their burning nest. Then, the Red Genesect turns good in the end.

Hero Ball: Ash tries to stop the Pokémon Hills residents from fighting back against the Genesect Army, saying that they were just looking for a home. Despite the fact that they're far stronger super soldiers who forced all those Pokémon out at gunpoint, injuring quite a few of them in the process, so the Pokémon have every reason to be pissed off at them.

Irony: Mewtwo's (failed) attempt to fly into space is very ironic, given how the original Mewtwo did it effortlessly in the opening titles for the very first season of the animé.

Jerkass: The Red Genesect is an asshole (and extremely violent, to boot) towards anyone who isn't on its side... even when "anyone" includes one of its own kind, like the Douse Drive Genesect.

Karma Houdini: Following the Red Genesect's HeelFace Turn, it receives no comeuppance for the the actions it did and how they threatened the city at large. What's more, it ends up getting exactly what it wanted - a new home.

Kick the Dog: While the Genesect were trying to create a new nest in the park, they attacked all the Pokémon that already lived there. The Red Genesect went so far as to attack some Rock-type Pokémon, sending them into a pond full of water. Remember, Rock-type Pokémon find too much exposure to water painful.

Lighter and Softer: Compared to the original Mewtwo's stories, this movie is definetly this. This Mewtwo's backstory is far less complex than the original's and isn't quite as tragic, and it's a heroic figure all the way through unlike the original; meanwhile, the Genesect Army's HeelFace Turn is handled more simplistically than the original Mewtwo antagonist in the first movie.

The Meddling Kids Are Useless: All in all, Ash and friends do very little to solve anything in the plot. The threat to the substation is dealt with by Eric, the conflict with the Genesect is almost exclusively between Mewtwo and the Pokémon Hills inhabitants, and about the only thing of worth they do is saving Mewtwo and the Red Genesect from an orbital fall via a giant ball of Soft Water (though this is after an attempt to save them with their own Pokémon fails).

Mind Control: The Red Genesect can exert this power, and the Genesect succumb to such control at various points. Given that the Genesect are cyborgs, and knowing their creator (Colress), this makes total sense.

Misanthrope Supreme: Downplayed with Mewtwo - it doesn't like humans and gets on better with other Pokémon, but it doesn't wish to destroy them like its predecessor. Though it suddenly starts caring about them when it and the Red Genesect fight in a populated area when not long ago it still had those feelings.

Mr. Exposition: Eric's role largely amounts to this and not much else.

Multiple-Choice Past: Mewtwo's backstory contradicts a bit of what was established in the prologue dedicated to it.

Never Trust a Title: No legends are ever awakened over the course of this movie, and Genesect's too ancient and Mewtwo too recent for either of them to have any legends focused on them. Presumably it refers to Mega Mewtwo Y, but no big deal is made of it in-universe, and the special episode acting as a prequel to this shows that Mewtwo was using it since day one of its life.

Many of the original Japanese trailers used footage that either showed certain events happening in a different way than in the movie (such as the Genesect Army's attack on Pokémon Hills taking place during the day and while Ash and co. were present) or was flat out not in it at all (such as Team Rocket falling into the Genesect nest, Iris and Cilan witnessing the Genesect creating said nest, and the Genesect fighting Mewtwo in New Talk City proper with people running away).

The first Japanese trailer is perhaps the biggest fibber of them all, as (besides the usual completely different footage) it makes no effort to imply that this Mewtwo is anything but the original; it doesn't speak, Ash instantly recognises it, and Cilan is surprised he knows what it is. Only for the next trailer to have Mewtwo speak, revealing a very different voice from the original, and the actual movie to reduce Ash's familiarity to a quickly-dropped sentence with no follow-up and zero recognition from anyone else.

The English trailer is guilty too — dubbing over footage compiled from said trailers, but (like the first Japanese trailer) also conspicuously never showing footage of Mewtwo speaking. Fans of the original Mewtwo who are blissfully unaware of the controversy may watch the trailer, believe the original Mewtwo returned, see the movie, then wonder why Mewtwo sounds female all of a sudden.

Strangely enough, a place based on New York City has already appeared — Unova, making New Talk City a New York within a generation based on New York.

No OSHA Compliance: So, why exactly build a nature reserve over a city's power supply? Especially one that holds Pokémon that can easily break through barricades? Furthermore, why do this when said power supply is not only the only one a city the size of New York has (are backup generators not a thing?), but also dangerous enough that a failure would cause the park to explode?

Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: For roughly the seventh time, the movies use this trope for its villains - in this case, the Genesect Army is mainly interested in going back to their prehistoric homeland (as the Douse Drive Genesect is oh-so-happy to remind the audience constantly).

Out-of-Character Moment: At one point in the film, Mewtwo acts concerned when the Red Genesect dents a building, saying "People live in there!" This is despite the fact that earlier, it established it couldn't care less if Ash, Iris and Cilan got vaporized by Genesect so long as their Pokémon were OK.

Phlebotinum Rebel: Both the Genesect Army and Mewtwo (especially the former, given that Team Plasma were its creators) blew up their creators' labs and escaped.

Red Ones Go Faster: The Red Genesect knows Extreme Speed and can move faster than the other four Genesect and regular Mewtwo. Apparently it's able to do this for no reason other than that it is red.

Running Gag: Twice in the movie, a Chansey walks by whenever someone says its name.

Save the Villain: The park Pokémon have to rescue the other three villainous Genesect from a fire, causing their HeelFace Turn. They later have to rescue the Red Genesect when he and Mewtwo are falling from orbit.

Ship Tease: The scene with the feminine Mewtwo and the masculine Red Genesect above the Earth, and the latter later saving the former as they fall, has some romantic undertones.

Space Does Not Work That Way: Surprisingly, this is mostly averted - Mewtwo taking the Red Genesect into space causes the two of them to partially freeze, they speak telepathically thus getting around the lack of sound in space, and after a while they plummet back to Earth due to a lack of air.

Soft Water: Mewtwo and the Red Genesect are saved from a terminal-velocity fall by a giant bubble of levitated water. Of course, being scientifically engineered superweapons probably helped their chances of survival somewhat.

Story-Breaker Power: Mega Mewtwo Y has no reason to not be used — it doesn't require immense concentration or cause Mewtwo physical or mental straining, it makes Mewtwo faster than even the extremely fast Red Genesect, there's no sign it weakens Mewtwo's power or stamina, and it has no pre-requisite to transform; it can just do it whenever it wants from the moment it was created. And yet Mewtwo, for no reason, often opts to revert back to its normal state and even go into battle without transforming, despite having no clear advantage in doing so.

Super Mode: Mega Mewtwo Y functions as this for Mewtwo. Interestingly, it can do this without Mewtwonite Y or a strong bond with a Trainer.

Taking the Bullet: The Douse Drive Genesect leaps to take the combined attack of four Genesect out of five of the Genesect Army aimed at Ash at one point.

Telepathy: Mewtwo and all Genesect use telepathy to speak. Mewtwo also uses the ability to read the Douse Drive Genesect's mind to learn of its past.

There's No Place Like Home: This is the Army's main motivation; however, their home has changed over 300 million years and they come across New Talk City while searching for the landscape they're familiar with. In the end, they make a new nest in a place where ancient flowers that grew in their homeland grow.

Token Good Teammate: The Douse Drive Genesect is the most pacifistic of the lot, and whenever it does fight, it's always while being mind controlled by the Red Genesect.

Transforming Mecha: The Genesect Army, who can turn into High-Speed Flight Forms to achieve flight.

Prior to this movie, Mewtwo was portrayed as a unique specimen with a unique personality across all Pokémon media; this movie introduces a second Mewtwo into the animé's canon, and essentially turns Mewtwo from a one-of-a-kind character into a race of two. One might be inclined to justify it as a means of both Mega Mewtwos appearing together... but outside of a meaningless five-second clip in the first Mega Evolution special, this meet-up has never happened.

To some extent, this also holds true for Genesect, since only one (non-shiny) was ever created in the games as opposed to the five seen here. It's much less blatant than Mewtwo, however, as Genesect hadn't been previously established to be a one of a kind Pokémon in the animé continuity.

Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Well, line - after meeting Mewtwo for the first time, Ash thinks it's the original Mewtwo from Pokémon: The First Movie. Mewtwo doesn't seem to care that Ash seemingly knows it despite them meeting for the first time, nor do his friends seem to care that he knows it despite meeting for the first time, nor does anyone (particularly and egregiously Mewtwo, who spends part of the movie believing it's alone) seem to care that there has apparently been another identical Mewtwo that Ash had met before.

Useless Protagonist: As tends to be the case in recent Pokémon movies, Ash and friends don't do much to impact the plot beyond interact with the Douse Drive Genesect, and largely take a back seat to Mewtwo and the Red Genesect.

Villainous Breakdown: Red Genesect has one when the other three Genesect turn on him and try to stop him, screaming that they're all enemies and trying to blow them to bits with his Wave Motion Gun.

The Douse Drive Genesect telepathically speaks with a voice actress doing a young voice. And this is coming from a 4'11" tall cyborg insect with a cannon on its back, red eyes, and a permanent Slasher Smile. Made even more jarring when you hear the Genesects' real voices - garbled Dalek-esque noises.

The Chill Drive Genesect sounds female in its few lines.

Mewtwo comes off as this for some people. While it is merely a second member of the Mewtwo species and not the same as the original character, to some its voice still feels as if Darth Vader suddenly had a motherly female voice.

With Us or Against Us: When the four purple Genesect decide to ignore the Red Genesect's orders to keep fighting, it sees them all as enemies and tries to destroy them.

Would Hurt a Child: Red Genesect has no qualms in harming Ash and friends the few times he comes across them.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy